Starting with a huge welcome to the Frenford Foodbank team for our new member Gabriella, recruited from our local Parkrun she arrived keen to make a start and was soon picking, packing and generally making herself a very valuable member of the team.

Julia and Kathryn made themselves very useful packing bags and teaming up to shift heavy crates together...although I am not convinced Kathryn giving someone bonus tinned pasta and chocolate mini rolls was a good swap for not having the right sized nappies but it made us laugh.

It was lovely to see Irina again who slipped into the team quietly getting on with things and doing a great job...so quiet I forgot to take her photo, sorry Irena, if its any consolation I also forgot to get a photo of myself 🤦‍♀️

Our regular couple of power packers Herman and Tina proved invaluable as ever completed a very efficient team.

With the steady stream of us arriving at different times and working alongside a couple of Frenfords own volunteers, things ticked over so smoothly we were finished early and had energy to spare to off load a supermarket delivery.

The only hitch was not having initial access to the storage cages so the packages had to be shifted about in crates then lifted on to the cages when the spare store key arrived but no one seemed to mind as we worked together and got the job finished.

The task owner was very pleased and sends a big thank you for our help.

Good job GoodGym. 😁

First Half - With England in the final it seemed a football reference in the title was appropriate. There was no time to discuss the match as for the first little while there was just the two of us, AJ and Linda, picking and packing at Frenford Foodbank. Whilst we know others will join us as they finish work there is always a niggling "what if it ends up just the two of us" thought as we move about in the eerie quiet of a usually bustling sports centre.

Half Time - A client turned up a little early and their parcel wasn't ready so we scurried about putting that together just as our new member Mira arrived. I hope he realised how welcomed he was as we invited him to throw his stuff on the floor and get stuck in with our rush job. Happy to say there was a little time for the niceties, introductions and brief training later. Mira soon had the hang of it and made a very useful contribution to the session sending a massive welcome to the group Mira.

2nd Half - Herman and Tina arrived straight from work and got started, Herman pointed out that there was a message from James asking if we still needed help so a speedy "get your bum over here" reply was sent. We ended up with 6 Goodgymmers and some Frenford staff, commandeered from their usual jobs by the task owner, so everything got done in good time and there was also a little time at the end of session to do a little shelf filling and the obligatory photo session - AJ had left due to family obligations before then so I have used a cute one from a previous session 😊

Game Over We Won 🥳🥳

It was a busy session at Frenford Food Bank. Still getting used to the double quantity of packages in one go and a glitch in printing the order forms causing a late start didn't stop us getting the job done in good time.

A huge welcome to Lukas, a very enthusiastic newcomer to Good Gym, so enthusiastic that he has done his Task Force training even before his first mission!🥳 After a quick run through of the system he was very soon making himself most useful. Also making himself useful was James an unexpected and very welcome arrival. Our regular, reliable and hard working GG couple Tina and Herman completed our team of 5.

We joined with Frenfords Workers and some Duke of Edinburgh Award candidates in the crowded but convivial corridor of supplies busily picking, packing and generally helping each other to get the job done.

There was a little trepidation about this session as the new system at Frenford Foodbank involves twice the number of packages and the new timing of the session meant we lost a couple of our regular experienced pickers and packers 😢

The session got off to a good start with the arrival of our newest recruit Irena. Irena made it across the border from Havering and soon got to work proving to be a valuable member of the team with minimal instruction. Welcome to Good Gym Irina.😊Talking about valuable members of the team our reliable hard working regulars Tina and Herman soon arrived bright and cheerful ready to tackle the mammoth task. 😁

Happily, despite things not being in the usual place and twice as much to do, things went quite smoothly. It was much easier with the centre being less congested. Although we used up all the allotted time and it was tiring, it was good to get it done all in one session.

Written by Sharon Graham,

I arrived fashionably late after work when the temperature had cooled down and most of the work had been done. I was left with sorting the soups and writing the numbers clearly on the bags. As you can see from the pictures all the goodgymmers had got stuck in despite the heat and kept on smiling. Linda and I stayed late to wait for drivers, a few came and went and we left for Linda to make her way home with a very local delivery and some well earned dinner.